Pilare Elmen nee Koivasta in the Tempest Games

We mentioned in Tuesday’s installment that merchant Michael Elmen had friends in high places. And one of those friends is his wife.

Pilare Koivasta appears in Courtier as a part of the Commerce coterie, in the role of adjustor.

The Commerce coterie is all about a fair exchange. Specifically, if you apply some influence on their behalf (by removing it from your pool), they will aply some influence on yours (by letting you place an influence marker on another courtier of your choice).

This is a powerful coterie to have under your control, but use it too often, and you’ll find that you quickly run out of influence to spare. Those in commerce have little patience for those who run out of resources.

During the span of time covered by Courtier, Pilare Koivasta and Michael Elmen, drawn together by their position and mutual love of money, end up becoming engaged, and they seek the blessing of various high-profile individuals to crush any opposition to the union of a banker and the senate adjustor.

With four courtiers listed on it, this can be a difficult petition to score—let’s face it, Michael and Pilare have a lot of people who wish them less than well—but if you do, well, 12 points is a lot of points.

In Dominare, Pilare’s name has changed to show her new marital status. Likewise, her acquisition of the Merchant keyword is due exclusively to her ties to Michael Elmen.

She bears the senate seal, and, and the new chancellor, has a fair amount of influence and a very large amount of fame (or, perhaps, infamy). And her two main abilities demonstrate her willingness to abuse her position for personal gain.

Her level 4 ability is her abusing her adjustor’s experience to plunge her hands deep into the public till (or, perhaps, to employ the city guard to aid and abet her husband in some “unilateral collections” from debtors).

Her level 6 ability represents her capacity to call an emergency closed session of the senate and keep the senators locked in debates and filibusters and meaningless motions, all to keep them distracted while the real work goes on outside the senate’s marble walls.